Travels and Tarot – Inspiration Everywhere

Life Through A Tarot Lens

I’ve just returned from a 3 weeks trip to Europe.  I live in Australia so a trip to Europe is quite a bit deal, even though I am originally from Scotland.

We met up with some friends in beautiful Copenhagen then my mother and father flew over from Scotland and we went on a cruise around the Baltic – St Petersburg, Tallinn, Helsinki, Gothenburg and a little town in Germany called Warnemunde.

It really was an amazing trip and I was blown away by the gorgeous architecture and history in each of the places we visited.

What really struck me during this trip is how different I see the world since diving further into tarot.  I’m starting to notice things that I would never have paid attention to before – that sky looks a bit 10 of swords, that statue reminds me of the chariot, that painting just has a general energy of The Fool.

I realised that I was seeing the world through a tarot lens and it was quite wonderful.  I had a much deeper appreciation of the beauty that was before me.

There was definitely a change on this trip and I am wondering if anybody else has experienced anything similar.  I would love to hear your thoughts.  Either type in the comments or drop me an email.

Copenhagen

It all started on my very first day in Copenhagen.  Our flight landed at 7am and we couldn’t check into our hotel until 3pm!!!! After 24 hours on a flight, this was not ideal but we decided to go explore to keep ourselves active and engaged.

It was mainly the statues in Copenhagen that caught my attention and I couldn’t believe how many of them reminded me of tarot cards.  Here is a small selection.  Please forgive the camera-work as I’m not the world’s best photographer.

I loved the strong woman who was riding the chariot.  Of course it’s quite different to the original card but there was something about her energy that told me she was going to be victorious.  The story behind that statue was quite fascinating.  She is a mythical character who was told by a God that she could keep at much land as she managed to plough in a certain time period.  She turned her sons into Ox so she could plough more land.  Eventually she threw a piece of this land into the sea, which went on to become the island of Denmark.  I may have some of the details wrong as I was extremely jet-lagged but I’m sure you get the drift :-).

I felt like the temperance statue was just about to dip her toe into the water and there was something very calm about her, even though there was mayhem happening around her.

Justice is a bit of a stretch but the I just got this vibe whilst looking at this particular statue.

St Petersburg

This place was just a massive WOW.  If you have never been and have the opportunity to go I would suggest that you do it.  I was so inspired by the beauty of this place.

The buildings had opulence that I have just never experienced and it just seemed never ending.  Here are some of the pictures from the summer and winter palaces.

Church on Spilled Blood

This was probably my favourite place as it was just breathtaking.  From the startling beauty of the domes to the intricate details of the interior, I was blown away.

The interior is covered in mosaics and many of the pictures could be tarot cards.  This one was particularly inspiring.  The light coming from above kind or reminded me of the Judgement card.

The Queen of Wands

When we were in the Hermitage I saw a piece of artwork that jumped out at me.  I immediately started to interpret the artwork much like I would interpret a tarot card.  It then dawned on me that this work had a lot of similarities with the Queen of Wands.

From the wand in her hand to the animal at her feet I saw a lot of parallels.  There is a real strength in this painting that I associate with the Queen of Wands.  I also see all the queens as being quite maternal so the little cherubs in the painting made sense to me.  Is that even a lion on her belt which echoes the lions on her chair?

As you can see I had a lot of fun on my holiday by applying my tarot lens.

I hope you enjoyed some of my highlights.  Here are a few other pictures that don’t really have anything to do with tarot but I did promise that I would share some snaps…